The Conduit

A conduit, someone, or something that is used as a way of sending something from one person or place to another. A pipe or tube through which something passes.

Tidy purple hair bows, white Peter Pan collar, khaki pleated skirt, white stockings, drooping black bookbag, and tennis shoes that were white once upon a time. Fourteen years old, she stands in line waiting to board the last Greyhound bus out of town, destined for Chicago, Illinois. Alone, unwanted, confused, and distressed, her eyeballs swimming in her eye sockets, she releases a sigh as the bus door retracts, the brakes screech, and the journey begins. What she didn't know was that this very moment was the moment she became, Theresa McIntosh.

Shipped off to Chicago at the age of fourteen, birth certificate forged as if she was sixteen so that she would be allowed to work, Theresa was handed a Burger King uniform and to labor, she went. Her adult life began during the prime of her adolescence. She lived with her aunt in a high-rise apartment on the southside of the city, the center of the roughest neighborhood in the mid-west, much different from life in her small hometown of Yazoo City, Mississippi. Every day she took the train to school, then from school to work, her childhood was a blur, not many savory memories of fun summers and days at the park. She never said much, but she felt everything.

Zero period at six a.m., her plan to graduate early, go off to college, and leave this life behind was looking promising. In high school, she blossomed. A sensational writer, singer, and a natural love for dance, she was admired by her peers. She dreamt of one day becoming a bestselling author, signing autographs, and telling her life story to the world with her spin of creativity. She spent the summer back home in Yazoo City, before coming back to Chicago to conquer her senior year. Over the summer she met the love of her life, the town's local basketball star. She planned to write, he planned to score, they made enough memories to last them until they would be reunited again.

Drowsiness, nausea, the pain of being pierced in the side, her summer technically never ended as she stares down at a pair of lines on a little blue stick that would add another loop to her rollercoaster of life. She was pregnant, forced to move back to Yazoo City, and abandon the Chicago life she had grown to love. All of the feelings she felt as that fourteen-year-old girl the day that greyhound bus left the station became a cloud, that hovered over her head every waking moment. The only time the sun came out was when she was with Marvin, her first love, the father of her child, and her superstar. They became bestfriends.

Bloody noses, forehead kisses, degrading arguments, and distorted intentions. Her once ray of sunshine had become an eclipse, blocking the possibility of light. Marvin became her greatest fear as he spiraled out of control from the devastation of his basketball career shattering suddenly from one silly mistake. Some days he loved her, but the days that he used drugs to cope with his devastation, she became his punching bag, except she was living, and every forceful blow indented her soul. She knew that it no longer mattered to him that she was pregnant with his child. Theresa didn't have any examples of how to be a good mother, but she knew what not to do from the lifestyle of her mother. If her unborn son was ever to have a life of opportunity she had to make a way on her own. If her unborn son was going to survive in her womb, she may have to once again, be alone.

Pushing, pulling, clawing for dear life, breaking away from Marvin wasn't easy, but with the help of some loyal friends, she soon became free. The scars would always remain but her son was the healing to her wounds. Motivated to provide for her son she began educating herself in every area possible. She sang, went to cosmetology school, learned the trucking industry, became a life insurance agent, and somehow still found time to write.

Theresa became perseverance, she became results, she used every skill she had to its maximum capacity to create the best opportunities for herself and her son. Along the way she encountered many young women, troubled and abused, they clung to her. Under her nose without even noticing she became the mentor, life coach, and big sister that the young girls never had. She began to realize that everything she experienced and endured only prepared her to help other young women, emerge from their circumstances, just as she did.

Toughness, respect, and love are the qualities she instilled in her son. Their life wasn't easy, but they had each other and Theresa knew that the worst of it all was in the rearview. Serving as a big sister to others and also being the oldest of her mother's three daughters, she became a self taught hair stylist. While doing their hair, she would counsel the young women, learning about their situations and giving them her own wisdom from experience. Theresa's passion for doing hair grew as it became a tool to connect her with others that she could pour her knowledge into. She always wanted to be respected, so rather than continue servicing clients at her own home, she decided to enroll in cosmetology school. With persistence her skills sharpened, and with grace she excelled through her cosmetology program and gained an overflowing portfolio of new clients. Though it was an achievement, Theresa was not satisfied. A domino effect of a depletion of rest, poor eating habits, and a schedule too busy to properly care for her self, she began experiencing severe hair loss. Keeping flexible availabilty to to accomodate her clients, raising her son independently, and experiencing the general speed bumps that are cemented on the road of life, stress was definitely a factor.

Motivated, optimistic, and eager to learn, Theresa began seeking education on how to reverse hair loss. She completed multiple programs to recieve certifactions to treat hair loss and began healing not only herself but anyone in need. Churches, medical facilities, and corporate businesses began soliciting her services. She traveled to various locations providing hair loss treatment to others as well as educating them on their circumstances. With an entirely new instrument of ability Theresa desired to open a facility dedicated to treating hair loss at affordable prices. After working as a stylist inside a salon with one of her friends from cosmetology school, she realized she was smothering her vision. She had been skipping and hooping for a while now and it was time for her to take a leap of faith and open her own hair salon.

Puzzle pieces aligning, clarity increasing, her business exploding by the second, Theresa had an epiphany that it was time to expand. As young women would bombard her with questions, eager to learn her craft, she developed an idea to allow her salon to evolve into a school of its own, teaching all things cosmetology. She reached out to old friends for their expertise and is now in the process of creating the first black owned full service cosmetology school in the state of Mississippi, providing affordable education to anyone that is committed.

Even with her erupting success in the cosmetology industry, Theresa did not neglect any of her other skills, talents, and interests. She has a thriving blog page where most of her recent work lives, and where many troubled women find healing in her words. Her transparent approach, starting each writing with "Dear Theresa" as a letter to herself, she really connects with those who read as she puts herself on the hot seat. Detailing her flaws, expounding on her past fears, through her blog others can use her as an example of the situations they experience in their own life, she is an open book that people cant help but to dive into. Many books have been written and live within the pages of her mountainous stacks of notebooks, and now she is finally writing a her own novel detailing the extravagancies of her existence.

Harnessing the responsibility of being a single mother, at times her salon income wasn't sufficient compared to the amount of bills she had as well as the healthy appetite of her growing son. She accepted a position as a receptionist in the office of a local black owned trucking company. Using her wide range of business knowledge and skills handling finances from running her own business, Theresa helped Wilson's Trucking go from over one hundred thousand dollars in the red to profiting just above one million dollars withing her first year as an employee. So grateful and crediting their success to her knowledge, she went from a receptionist to managing the entire company. The woman in charge, she became. Learning the industry from the inside out she became self educated in the trucking industry and continued to hoist the company to a machine of wealth. Unfortunately, after some personal devastations leading to clouded judgement, the owner of Wilson's Trucking decided that He and not Theresa should oversee the company's finances. All of her hard work would go to waste as the owner began to squander the wealth of the powerhouse she had helped build. After a fleet of pour decisions and ill intentions, in the blink of an eye, Wilson's Trucking no longer existed. Although she was disappointed, with the loss of a job and the death of the business, she knew that the skills and information she had gained would one day be of great value.

Many moons passed and her once young, bright eyed, and clingy son was now a young man with children of his own. Theresa found a new layer to her heart in being a grandmother and wanted nothing more than for her grandchildren to be loved, covered, protected regardless of what happened in her or her son's life. This new layer of love lead her to Fortson's Life Insurance office, which turned out to be another opportunity for her to expand her strength. Seeking life insurance policies for herself and her son and his children, became an impromptu job interview and she was offered a position at Fortson's Life Insurance. The staff was in awe of her charisma and knowledge of finances, after giving them some insight to her background and areas of expertise, they realized she was just the person the spark they needed. Theresa began learning about life insurance, investments, and making priceless connections with power players in finance.

With many streams of knowledge and always walking through the right door of opportunity, It is only a matter of time before Theresa is able to use her wisdom to build an empire of multiple structures to impact the generations to come. Life has been a constant building of character for her, but she knows that the greater the struggle makes room for a greater reward. Women admire her, she motivates them to live free of limitations and stand firm through adversity. All she wants is to be a vessel for others to learn how to conquer their lives.

She is dedicated to helping others break through ceilings, persevere past troubles, and soar far above their expectations. Theresa did not allow her circumstances to harden her heart or cause her to make excuses for living an undesirable life. Instead, she never gave up, learned from her situations, and uses her life as an example to others that the storm will subside. Being a conduit isn't always comfortable but it is worth it. She finds joy in pouring herself out to others if it means standing in the rain to help the sun to shine on them. Only if that fourteen-year-old girl knew, that her pain would set others free.